Golden Age of India

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Certain historical time periods have been named "golden ages ", where development flourished, including on the Indian subcontinent. [1] [2]

Contents

Ancient India

Maurya empire before Kalinga War Chandragupta Maurya Empire.png
Maurya empire before Kalinga War

Maurya Empire

The Maurya Empire (321–185 BC) was the largest and one of the most powerful empires to exist in the history of the Indian subcontinent. This era was accompanied by high levels of cultural development and economic prosperity. The empire saw significant advancements in the fields of literature, science, art, and architecture. Important works like the Arthashastra and Sushruta Samhita were written and expanded in this period. The earlier development of the Brahmi script and Prakrit languages took place during this period, and these later formed the bases of other languages. This era also saw the emergence of scholars like Acharya Pingal and Patanjali, who made great advancements in the fields of mathematics, poetry, and yoga. [3] The Maurya Empire was notable for its efficient administrative system, which included a large network of officials and bureaucrats as well as a sophisticated system of taxation and a well-organized army. [4] [5]

According to estimates given by historians, during the Maurya era, the Indian subcontinent generated close to one third of global GDP, which would be the highest the region would ever contribute. [6]

The Gupta Empire under Chandragupta II (375-415) Map of the Gupta Empire.png
The Gupta Empire under Chandragupta II (375–415)

Gupta Empire

The period between the 4th and 6th centuries CE is known as the Golden Age of India because of the considerable achievements that were made in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, science, religion, and philosophy, during the Gupta Empire. [7] [8] The decimal numeral system, including the concept of zero, was invented in India during this period. [9] The peace and prosperity created under the leadership of the Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors in India. [10] [11] [12] The Golden Age of India came to an end when the Hunas invaded the Gupta Empire, in the 6th century CE. The gross domestic product (GDP) of ancient India was estimated to be 32% and 28% of global GDP in 1 AD and 1000 AD, respectively. [13] Also, during the first millennium of the Common Era, the Indian population comprised around 30.3% and 27.15% of the total world population. [14] [15] [16]

Medieval India

Chola Empire

Chola Empire under Rajendra Chola I, c. 1030 CE Rajendra map new.svg
Chola Empire under Rajendra Chola I, c. 1030 CE

South India in the 10th and 11th centuries CE, under the imperial Cholas, is considered as another golden age. [17] [18] The period saw extensive achievements in architecture, Tamil literature, sculpture and bronze working, maritime conquests, and trade. Under the Cholas, the major Southeast Asian countries practiced Hinduism.[ citation needed ] The Chola economy constituted one of the world's largest GDPs at the time. [19] [18] [20]

Late Middle Ages & early modern era

Map of the Mughal Empire at its greatest extent, under Aurangzeb C.1707 Joppen1907India1700a.jpg
Map of the Mughal Empire at its greatest extent, under Aurangzeb C.1707

The Mughal Empire was founded in 1526 by Babur of the Barlas clan, after his victories at the First Battle of Panipat and the Battle of Khanwa, against the Delhi Sultanate and Rajput Confederation, respectively. [21] [22] Over the following centuries, under Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire would grow in area and power and dominate the Indian subcontinent, reaching its maximum extent under Aurangzeb. This imperial structure lasted until 1720, shortly after the Mughal–Maratha Wars and the death of Aurangzeb, [23] [24] losing its influence to reveal powers such as the Maratha Empire and the Sikh Confederacy. The empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

The Mughals adopted and standardised the rupee (rupiya, or silver) and dam (copper) currencies introduced by Sur emperor Sher Shah Suri during his brief rule. [25]

A major sector of the Mughal economy was agriculture. [26] A variety of crops were grown, including food crops such as wheat, rice, and barley, and non-food cash crops such as cotton, indigo, and opium. By the mid-17th century, Indian cultivators began to extensively grow maize and tobacco, imported from the Americas. [26] The Mughal administration emphasised agrarian reform, started by Sher Shah Suri, the work of which Akbar adopted and furthered with more reforms. The civil administration was organised in a hierarchical manner on the basis of merit, with promotions based on performance, exemplified by the common use of the seed drill among Indian peasants, [27] and built irrigation systems across the empire, which produced much higher crop yields and increased the net revenue base, leading to increased agricultural production. [26]

Manufacturing was also a significant contributor to the Mughal economy; the empire produced about 25% of the world's industrial output until the end of the 18th century. [28] Manufactured goods and cash crops were sold throughout the world. Key industries included textiles, shipbuilding, and steel. Processed products included cotton textiles, yarns, thread, silk, jute products, metalware, and foods such as sugar, oils, and butter [26] The Mughal Empire also took advantage of the demand for Indian products in Europe, particularly cotton textiles, as well as goods such as spices, peppers, indigo, silks, and saltpeter (for use in munitions). [26] European fashion, for example, became increasingly dependent on Mughal Indian textiles and silks. From the late 17th century to the early 18th century, India accounted for 95% of British imports from Asia, and Bengal Subah province alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia. [29]

The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was textile manufacturing, particularly cotton, which included the production of piece goods, calicos, and muslins. [30] By the early 18th century, Mughal Indian textiles were clothing people across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. [31] The most important centre of cotton production was Bengal province, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka. [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of India</span> Pre-1947 history of the Indian subcontinent

Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; by 4500 BCE, settled life had spread, and gradually evolved into the Indus Valley Civilisation, which flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in present-day Pakistan and north-western India. Early in the second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages. Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the Punjab from Central Asia in several waves of migration. The Vedic Period was marked by the composition of their large collections of hymns (Vedas). The social structure was stratified via the varna system, which persists till this day though highly evolved. The pastoral and nomadic Indo-Aryans spread from the Punjab into the Gangetic plain. Around 600 BCE, a new, interregional culture arose; then, small chieftaincies (janapadas) were consolidated into larger states (mahajanapadas). A second urbanisation took place, which came with the rise of new ascetic movements and religious concepts, including the rise of Jainism and Buddhism. The latter was synthesised with the preexisting religious cultures of the subcontinent, giving rise to Hinduism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent</span> Era in South Asia characterized by Muslim rule

Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent (712–1757) is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad Caliphate under the military command of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Punjab</span>

The History of Punjab refers to the past history of Punjab region which is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in the northwest of South Asia, comprising western Punjab province in Pakistan and eastern Punjab state in India. It is believed that the earliest evidence of human habitation in Punjab traces to the Soan valley of the Pothohar, between the Indus and the Jhelum rivers, where Soanian culture developed between 774,000 BC and 11,700 BC. This period goes back to the first interglacial period in the second Ice Age, from which remnants of stone and flint tools have been found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mughal architecture</span> 16th–18th-century Indo-Islamic architecture

Mughal architecture is the type of Indo-Islamic architecture developed by the Mughals in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries throughout the ever-changing extent of their empire in the Indian subcontinent. It developed from the architectural styles of earlier Muslim dynasties in India and from Iranian and Central Asian architectural traditions, particularly Timurid architecture. It also further incorporated and syncretized influences from wider Indian architecture, especially during the reign of Akbar. Mughal buildings have a uniform pattern of structure and character, including large bulbous domes, slender minarets at the corners, massive halls, large vaulted gateways, and delicate ornamentation; examples of the style can be found in modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military history of India</span> Aspect of Indian history

The predecessors to the contemporary Army of India were many: the sepoy regiments, native cavalry, irregular horse and Indian sapper and miner companies raised by the three British presidencies. The Army of India was raised under the British Raj in the 19th century by taking the erstwhile presidency armies, merging them, and bringing them under the Crown. The British Indian Army fought in both World Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic history of India</span> History of economy in India

India was one of the richest countries in the world, for about two and a half millennia starting around the end of 1st millennium BC and ending around the beginning of British rule in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medieval India</span> Period of South Asian history

Medieval India refers to a long period of post-classical history of the Indian subcontinent between the "ancient period" and "modern period". It is usually regarded as running approximately from the breakup of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century CE to the start of the early modern period in 1526 with the start of the Mughal Empire, although some historians regard it as both starting and finishing later than these points. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the early medieval and late medieval eras.

This is the Economic history of the Indian subcontinent. It includes the economic timeline of the region, from the ancient era to the present, and briefly summarizes the data presented in the Economic history of India and List of regions by past GDP (PPP) articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Bengal</span>

The history of Bengal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It includes modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Karimganj district, located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom whose war elephant forces led the withdrawal of Alexander the Great from India. Some historians have identified Gangaridai with other parts of India. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers act as a geographic marker of the region, but also connects the region to the broader Indian subcontinent. Bengal, at times, has played an important role in the history of the Indian subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mughal dynasty</span> Indian Turco-Mongol dynasty

The Mughal dynasty comprised the members of the imperial House of Babur (Persian: خاندانِ آلِ بابُر; Khāndān-e-Āl-e-Bābur), also known as the Gurkanis, who ruled the Mughal Empire from c. 1526 to 1857.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian people</span> Citizens and nationals of India

Indian people are the citizens and nationals of the Republic of India. In 2022, the population of India stood at 1.4 billion people. According to UN forecasts, India overtook China as the world's most populous country by the end of April 2023, containing 17.50 percent of the global population. In addition to the Indian population, the Indian overseas diaspora also boasts large numbers, particularly in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and the Western world.

The role and scale of British imperial policy during the British Raj on India's relative decline in global GDP remains a topic of debate among economists, historians, and politicians. Some commentators argue the effect of British rule was negative, and that Britain engaged in a policy of deindustrialisation in India for the benefit of British exporters which left Indians relatively poorer than before British rule. Others argue that Britain's impact on India was either broadly neutral or positive, and that India's declining share of global GDP was due to other factors, such as new mass production technologies or internal ethnic conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mughal Empire</span> 1526–1857 empire in South Asia

The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the frontier with Central Asia in northern Afghanistan to the northern uplands of the Deccan plateau, and from the Indus basin on the west to the Assamese highlands in the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army of the Mughal Empire</span> Armed forces of the Mughal Empire

The Army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselves, were in the cavalry-based armies of central Asia, its essential form and structure was established by the empire's third emperor, Akbar. The army had no regimental structure and the soldiers were not directly recruited by the emperor. Instead, they would be recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Uttar Pradesh</span> History of the state in Northern India

The history of Uttar Pradesh, a state in India, stretches back several millennia. The region shows the presence of human habitation dating back to between 85,000 and 73,000 years ago. Additionally, the region seems to have been domesticated as early as 6,000 BC.

The economic de-industrialisation of India refers a period of reduction in industrial based activities within the Indian economy from 1757 to 1947. The process of de-industrialisation is an economic change in which employment in the manufacturing sector declines due to various economic or political reasons. The decline in employment in manufacturing is also followed by the fall in the share of manufacturing value added in GDP. The process of de-industrialisation can be due to development and growth in the economy and it can also occur due to political factors.

The economy in the Indian Subcontinent during the Mughal Empire era performed just as it did in ancient times, though now it would face the stress of extensive regional tensions. It was described as large and prosperous. India producing about 28% of the world's industrial output up until the 18th century. While at the start of 17th century, the economic expansion within Mughal territories become the largest and surpassed Qing dynasty and Europe, where from Bengal Subah alone, the province statistically has contributed to 12% of Gross domestic product. by 1700s, Mughals had approximately 24 percent share of world's economy. They grew from 22.7% in 1600, which at the end of 16th century, has surpassed China to become the world's largest GDP.

References

  1. ↑ The Mughal World, p. 386, Abraham Eraly, Penguin Books
  2. ↑ Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa p. 29, Andrea L. Stanton, SAGE
  3. ↑ "Patanjali", Wikipedia, 13 April 2023, retrieved 14 April 2023
  4. ↑ The Maurya Empire: The History and Legacy of Ancient India's Greatest Empire. Charles River Editors. 2017.
  5. ↑ Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa p. 29, Andrea L. Stanton, SAGE
  6. ↑ Angus Maddison (2007). Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History. Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-19-922721-1.
  7. ↑ Building Bridges Among the BRICs, p. 125, Robert Crane, Springer, 2014
  8. ↑ Keay, John (2000). India: A history. Atlantic Monthly Press. p.  132. ISBN   978-0-87113-800-2. The great era of all that is deemed classical in Indian literature, art and science was now dawning. It was this crescendo of creativity and scholarship, as much as ... political achievements of the Guptas, which would make their age so golden.
  9. ↑ "THE GUPTA EMPIRE OF INDIA 320-720".
  10. ↑ Padma Sudhi. Gupta Art: A Study from Aesthetic and Canonical Norms. Galaxy Publications. p. 7-17.
  11. ↑ Lee Engfer (2002). India in Pictures . Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN   9780822503712.
  12. ↑ "Patanjali", Wikipedia, 13 April 2023, retrieved 14 April 2023
  13. ↑ Angus Maddison (2007). Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History. Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-19-922721-1.
  14. ↑ Angus Maddison (2007). Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History. Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-19-922721-1.
  15. ↑ Building Bridges Among the BRICs, p. 125, Robert Crane, Springer, 2014
  16. ↑ Raghu Vamsa v 4.60–75
  17. ↑ Herausgeber., Kesavapany, K. Herausgeber. Kulke, Hermann Herausgeber. Sakhuja, Vijay. Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa : Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia (Tamil ed.). ISBN   978-981-4345-32-3. OCLC   1104856143.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. 1 2 The First Spring Part 1: Life in the Golden Age of India. Penguin UK. 2014. p. 102. ISBN   9789351186458. The period of the 'imperial' Cholas was the golden age of South India.
  19. ↑ Angus Maddison (2007). Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History. Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-19-922721-1.
  20. ↑ Herausgeber., Kesavapany, K. Herausgeber. Kulke, Hermann Herausgeber. Sakhuja, Vijay. Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa : Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia (Tamil ed.). ISBN   978-981-4345-32-3. OCLC   1104856143.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ↑ Hooja, Rima (2006). A History of Rajasthan. Rupa. p. 454. ISBN   9788129115010. From Baburs memoirs we learn that Sanga's success against the Mughal advance guard commanded by Abdul Aziz and other forces at Bayana, severely demoralised the fighting spirit of Baburs troops encamped near Sikri.
  22. ↑ Berndl, Klaus (2005). National Geographic Visual History of the World. National Geographic Society. pp. 318–320. ISBN   978-0-7922-3695-5.
  23. ↑ Stein, Burton (2010), A History of India, John Wiley & Sons, p. 159, ISBN   978-1-4443-2351-1 Quote: "The imperial career of the Mughal house is conventionally reckoned to have ended in 1707 when the emperor Aurangzeb, a fifth-generation descendant of Babur, died. His fifty-year reign began in 1658 with the Mughal state seeming as strong as ever or even stronger. But in Aurangzeb's later years the state was brought to the brink of destruction, over which it toppled within a decade and a half after his death; by 1720 imperial Mughal rule was largely finished and an epoch of two imperial centuries had closed."
  24. ↑ Richards, John F. (1995), The Mughal Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. xv, ISBN   978-0-521-56603-2 Quote: "By the latter date (1720) the essential structure of the centralized state was disintegrated beyond repair."
  25. ↑ "Picture of original Mughal rupiya introduced by Sher Shah Suri". Archived from the original on 5 October 2002. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 Schmidt, Karl J. (2015). An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History. Routledge. pp. 100–. ISBN   978-1-317-47681-8.
  27. ↑ Pagaza, Ignacio; Argyriades, Demetrios (2009). Winning the Needed Change: Saving Our Planet Earth. IOS Press. p. 129. ISBN   978-1-58603-958-5.
  28. ↑ Jeffrey G. Williamson & David Clingingsmith, India's Deindustrialization in the 18th and 19th Centuries Archived 29 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine , Global Economic History Network, London School of Economics
  29. ↑ Om Prakash, "Empire, Mughal", History of World Trade Since 1450, edited by John J. McCusker, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference US, 2006, pp. 237–240, World History in Context. Retrieved 3 August 2017
  30. ↑ Parthasarathi, Prasannan (2011), Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850, Cambridge University Press, p. 2, ISBN   978-1-139-49889-0
  31. ↑ Jeffrey G. Williamson (2011). Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind. MIT Press. p. 91. ISBN   978-0-262-29518-5.
  32. ↑ Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996), The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760, p. 202, University of California Press

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